DA: Murray May Be Released Early In Efforts To Ease Jail Overcrowding

In this TV frame grab, Dr. Conrad Murray is remanded into custody after the jury returned with a guilty verdict in his involuntary manslaughter trial at the Los Angeles Superior Court on November 7, 2011. (credit: Pool/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A proposal to reduce overcrowding at Los Angeles County jails by approving early release for nonviolent offenders may lead to a shortened prison sentence for one infamous inmate.

As more inmates from state prisons are transferred to local facilities, space is becoming increasingly limited — a development that could potentially put some inmates back on the street, L.A. County District Attorney Steve Cooley told KNX 1070.

Cooley suggested one way to remedy overcrowding is for the county to consider alternative forms of punishment.

“House arrest programs, electronic monitoring, check into a day care center, a wide variety of other rehab programs that are not involved with incarceration,” said Cooley.

An estimated 8,000 inmates who would otherwise serve time in state prison will be transferred to local jails every year, according to Cooley.

But despite the pledges of reform, Cooley warned the possibility of releasing inmates early could fuel rising crime rates and even lead to a very short stint behind bars for Dr. Conrad Murray.

“It won’t matter what Steve Cooley wants, it won’t matter what the Superior Court judge wants, it doesn’t matter what the law is, it doesn’t matter what the people want,” said Cooley.

“Vast powers are going to be invested in the sheriff who has to manage a very difficult, large population of people incarcerated in the jails, and this is the folly of AB109 brought to us by the governor and the state legislature,” he added.

Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of pop star Michael Jackson, faces sentencing on Nov. 29.

As a medical professional who investigates and writes on the maddening subject of physician misbehavior, I’d like to reiterate what I wrote two years ago, when the Michael Jackson case first hit the airwaves:

“Conrad Murray will be charged with a lesser-level Homicide. He will be found guilty and sentenced to the bare minimum. He will in all likelihood spend less than a year behind bars. He will then be released. He will leave the state which convicted him, and quietly regain his medical license somewhere else in an appallingly short period of time.”

The ugly reality is, when it comes to bad behavior, this society holds doctors to the lowest level of responsibility of any other profession. Neither nurses nor truck drivers; not realtors nor airline pilots; nor judges nor licensed contractors, would regain their professional licenses after a Homicide.

But doctors do it all the time. One need look no further in our insanity as a nation than this brainless situation: